Something I'd prefer to avoid: "There are 3 more confirmed cases of Zika in Belize, but this time on Caye Caulker. The infected persons had gone to the hospital with fever and rash earlier this month and they tested positive for Zika"

Something I'd prefer to avoid: "There are 3 more confirmed cases of Zika in Belize, but this time on Caye Caulker. The infected persons had gone to the hospital with fever and rash earlier this month and they tested positive for Zika"

Backpackers maybe who've been to other parts of the world?!?!?!?!? Wake up and take that Cotton Wool Suit off that protects you - unless a pregnant woman of course - Great big world out there.

Hysteria maybe. I made arrangement for my son and his then pregnant wife to come down and visit me last winter. A friend owed me a favor and I had a one week free condo for them in one of the best resorts in the country. When the Zika thing started I advised them to stay home and they did. I'd do it again. A life time is a long time to take care of a handicapped child. In addition they are finding out more about this disease as time goes by including that it can be passed on sexually.

Commonsense told me that it was not in the interest of what is best for Belize so the issue was downplayed. Especially after I read that Belize at the time had no means of testing for Zika. All the countries and Islands around us have Zika but we don't? The lead time for realizing that babies may have the disease is several months so we will maybe shortly seeing the results.

My opinion is that if you are pregnant or plan on being soon do not come down. If not, then don't worry too much about it and continue with your life.

If you google the tests techniques you'll read about false positives from cross-reaction with related flaviviruses (e.g., dengue and yellow fever viruses) In other words the antibodies of the persons history of diseases can make the test false positive. I'm sure the person on Caye Caulker got the updated state of the art tests :-)Florida , Texas and even Alaska have cases, so not coming to Belize to avoid Zika is still unrealistic fear IMHO.

Zika has been front and center in the media in Belize and although we do not test here, we send to the regional lab in Trinidad and have only had a few positive cases. Health dept has been proactive in my area with regular spraying.